The Chuckwagon Restaurant and Banquet Hall is set to open in early March on the grounds of Starstruck Farm, a wedding venue and casual lodging site located on the land that was Reba McEntire’s former horse farm in Lebanon. The restaurant will serve not only lodging guests but also the general public.
A smorgasbord-style buffet will be offered Wednesday through Sunday. There will be hickory smoked barbecue from Jay’s Hole-in-the-Wall, deep Southern fare from Zee and Zoot’s, Mexican from Acapulco Jay’s, and real Italian from Jaylone’s Italiano.
The dinner service will be from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Adults and kids 12 and older will cost $19, kids five to 11 will cost $12, and kids four and under will cost $4 for the all-you-care-to-eat buffet. Sunday lunch buffet will be Southern style and be served from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The cost of it will be $12, $7 and $3, respectively. There will be a breakfast buffet every day from 7:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. Cost for breakfast is the same as Sunday lunch. Everything is included in the one price. Guests staying on the property will enjoy the breakfast for free.
Most of the time, the buffet will feature main dishes that include hickory smoked BBQ pork, ham and chicken; hand-tossed pizza; Italian beef; meatballs; lasagna, spaghetti; chicken parmigiana; a Mexican taco bar; country fried chicken; chicken and noodles; sliced beef and meatloaf.
Sides will feature baked beans; Mondo Mac; cole slaw; Freezer Slaw; Tennessee Taters; Cinci Chili; Country Fries; Lumpy Taters and Elvis Gravy; Aunt Lucille’s green bean casserole; queso and bean dip; Mexican rice; chili beans and “a herd of other sides and salads.”
There will also be a range of desserts like cobbler and deep-fried Moon Pies. For bread lovers, the hit of the party will be the rolls and beignets, which will sometimes get tossed around.
“Thirst quenchers” include soft drinks, lemon shake-ups, sweet and unsweet tea, sassafras and peach tea, coffee, milk or water.
Currently, Chuckwagon has no liquor license, but they hope to have one by April. They will allow diners to bring their own wine for a $5.00 fee per bottle.
Catering will also be available from Chuckwagon, including a hot dog buffet for the wee ones at any event.
Jay Wilfond is the driving force behind the new venue. He lived down the road from the farm for more than 20 years, admired the land, and bought it in 2019. He looks like a member of ZZ Top and he is a musician, but he is also a “Jack of many trades.” He has worked since he was six, including owning a restaurant, owning a music store, owning a sound equipment manufacturing company and selling real estate. He sold his sound equipment business to Gibson Guitar Corporation. Then he started to flip houses.
When he bought the farm, he initially didn’t know what he was going to do with it but decided to turn it into an event venue and Airbnb. He built 13 A-frame cabins on the property, converted the 16 horse stalls in the massive barn into “Stall Suites” complete with bathrooms and big screen TVs, and there is additional space on the 46 acres of property for both RV and tent camping.
The central part of the barn he has been renting out as a wedding venue, but now the new Chuckwagon Restaurant and Banquet Hall will offer additional space for weddings, corporate events and large family gatherings.
Music has long been a big part of Starstruck Farm, and it will also be a part of Chuckwagon with entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights. “Grand Ole Opry singer and songwriter Eddie Weidow and others will be performing on Friday and Saturday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.,” says the website. Wilfond has brought in many talented studio musicians from Nashville to the farm, and he will continue to do so in this new venue.
The Chuckwagon Banquet Hall is on Starstruck Farm located at 10471 Highway 109 North, Lebanon, Tennessee. It is 32 miles from downtown Nashville; three miles south of Gallatin, Tennessee; 15 miles from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee and 14 miles from Lebanon, Tennessee.
For more information, check out their website, https://chuckwagonbanquethall.com/ or follow Starstruck Farm Facebook page. They can also be contacted at (615) 975-0374.
I pass this place every day and finally made it in to try the food at the Chuckwagon. Boy, how disappointing! Food barely warm, coffee made weeks ago and cottage fries way over salted. Staff inattentive and even the salad dressings were out.
If you want the business to succeed, you’ve got to do better than this! 1 out of ten.